Witness
by Katsuko1978
Summary: Sometimes we realize the truth a little too late. Shounenai hintings and a bit one sided... or is it? Rated for language INCOMPLETE ON HIATUS
1. Prologue: Shuldich's Thoughts at a Rathe...

Title: Witness  
Author: Ryoko 03  
Fandom: Weiß Kreuz  
Warnings: AU – Angst – Implied Shounen-ai – Oracle/Prodigy Bastardization – Death  
Rating: R for language and implied violence

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the fic; hell, if I was the creator I can promise that the new designs (http://www.marine-e.co.jp/weib/weib-anime02.htm) would NOT exist!! God, I can only imagine wtf they could do to the Schwarz boys should they pop up in the new season....

Summary: Sometimes realization comes a little too late....  


~+ Witness +~

__

Will we burn in heaven like we do down here? – Sarah McLachlan, "Witness"  


Prologue

I think it was the tears that did me in.

I know; how can seeing someone cry possibly change your entire opinion of him? People cry every day, for joy and in pain, out of fear and grief and sometimes even in anger.

But you never, _ever_ cried.

At least, that's what I thought.

You were the perfect killing machine—cold, cruel, heartless, and forget about trying to hurt you in retaliation! You can't touch someone who doesn't feel pain, after all.

Oh, not that people didn't _try_. They hit and cut and stabbed, and you never faltered in your duties. The kill could be clean, or incredibly violent and bloody, but the target always fell when you stepped into the picture.

No one could touch you; no one could hurt you.

But someone did.

Fuck, _we_ hurt you!

We were a team, yet you were all but ignored. You were ridiculed, treated as a fool and an idiot, locked away when we didn't wish to deal with you, and yet you still sought us out. You weren't immune to loneliness, but none of us wanted to see that. We just wanted you to remain the insane one who didn't care for people and merely tolerated the rest of us, never realizing just how much the isolation truly hurt you.

And then one night my eyes were opened.

Once again you sought us out, and once again you were dismissed in a rather inhumane manner. The boy glared at you for a moment before tuning your presence out entirely and returning his attention to the computer, and our illustrious leader—would you think poorly of me if I say I want to kick his ass right about now? —all but ordered you back to the cell we oh-so-casually referred to as your room. For once I kept my mouth shut—in retrospect I should have made some wise ass remark as you left to avoid seeing what I did.

As you turned to leave, face the same expressionless mask as always, I saw the look in your eye. Pain, pure emotional despair and loneliness that had I taken that moment to peek into your mind, would have overwhelmed my mental shields. There was wetness there, also, something that had never been there in all the time that I'd known you.

It took me a moment to recognize the wetness as tears, and even then it took one slipping free for me to know for sure.

One moment, one shed tear, and my perception of you changed. You were _human_, just like Nagi, just like Crawford, just like me. You were capable of laughter, of tears, of joy and of sorrow. You could hate, you could love, you were capable of _being_ loved.

And still you walked the world alone, believing yourself to be abandoned by God and by the world He created, never knowing that I was now watching in silence, looking for more signs of humanity and the intelligence that I'd begun to realize were hidden from us all.

Had I known you were going to leave us shortly, I would have told you I was there if you ever needed someone to turn to. I would have opened my mind and my heart to you, given of myself willingly, in hopes of making you smile.

But now it's too late.

And as you lie bleeding in my arms, I can't help but remember what brought us here tonight....  


~+ Owari Prologue +~


	2. Chapter One: Misery Made Beautiful

Title: Witness  
Author: Ryoko 03  
Fandom: Weiß Kreuz  
Warnings: AU – Angst – Implied Shounen-ai – Oracle/Prodigy Bastardization – Death  
Rating: R for language and implied violence

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the fic; hell, if I was the creator I can promise that the new designs (http://www.marine-e.co.jp/weib/weib-anime02.htm) would NOT exist!! God, I can only imagine wtf they could do to the Schwarz boys should they pop up in the new season....

Author's Note: Once again, this is Schuldich's point of view. Any additional notes are at the end, and there is a micro-chapter/interlude to follow immediately, from Farfarello's POV.

//thoughts//

{telepathic speech}

Summary: Sometimes realization comes a little too late....

  
~+ Witness +~

__

Is misery  
Made beautiful  
Right before our eyes  
Will mercy be revealed  
Or blind us where we stand   
– Sarah McLachlan, "Witness"

Chapter One 

This morning started off like any other. Prodigy was staring morosely at his breakfast and wondering if he could talk our fearless leader into letting him take a day off school. Oracle was attempting to memorize every word in the newspaper, while Farfie was idly twirling a knife while keeping a silent yet running commentary on the "colors" in the room. Meanwhile, I was covertly keeping tabs on the Irishman—as I have been for three months ever since the night I saw his tears.

And then, without looking up from that damned paper, Crawfish casually said, "By the way, we're doing guard duty for Takatori tonight."

"_Another_ fucking party?!"

Hey, I _hate_ the man, so obviously the prospect of guard duty doesn't make me happy at all.

Nagi's reaction was much the same as mine, although without the swearing—he heaved a near silent sigh and tuned everything out, slamming his mental shields into place with a decisive, {Don't even _think_ I'm taking Farf-sitting duty tonight.} It was all I could do not to pry open those flimsy shields and force him to see what I've witnessed over the past few months.

By all appearances, Farfie expressed his typical non-reaction by giving Crawdaddy a blank stare before slamming his knife deep into the wood. However, since he doesn't really _have_ mental shields and is unaware that he projects, I was privy to his real feelings over the prospect of "baby-sitting":

//Oh, joy. Another night of sitting around, watching everyone get drunk and start throwing muddy blood red around the room at one another while keeping their polite smiles in place. I'll be lucky if someone doesn't try to pick a fight tonight, I'm _really_ not in the mood for that....//

Okay, before I started paying attention to my second-youngest teammate, I had _no_ fucking clue what he was talking about when referring to colors. But a little digging—not to mention snooping around his room whenever Oracle deigned to let him outside of the apartment—revealed something that I would have never in a million years expected of him:

Farfarello could see auras.

Not just that, he seemed to know the moods of people just by "reading" their energy fields. Which really doesn't explain why he kept trying to get close to all of us, Crawford probably throws off a hell of a lot of that dark angry red while I suspect Prodigy walks about in a cloud of negative black energy. I used to wonder what he saw when he looked at me, though....

Crawford's voice dragged me back to the present: "Yes, another party. And you will _all_"—I'm sure he meant primarily Farfie and me—"be on your best behavior. I don't want a repeat of the Halloween ball on my hands tonight."

The Irishman snickered from his seat, dragging the knife towards him and digging it deeper into the table. At Halloween he threw one of Taka-moron's bouncers right through a plate glass window, giving the excuse that "throwing bouncers hurts God." After I started to look deeper into his psyche—which is still a damned scary place, I do believe my teammate is more schizophrenic than psychopathic however—I uncovered the real reason for Farf's bouncer-throwing. Apparently looking for a quick fuck, he targeted in on the Irishman in spite of—maybe because of?—his scars and blank, doll-like expression. After saying no enough times, Farfie finally had enough and _made_ the guy go away.

Who woulda guessed that Mr. I-Kill-For-Fun was a bit of an innocent after all? Not me, at least not before....

"Damn it, Farfarello, that's the fifth table this month!" Crawfish shouted, scowling in annoyance and anger with the teen. Nagi, or course, ignored the scene as usual, while I barely kept myself from snapping to my friend's defense.

//Wow, I didn't know red could _get_ any darker.//

I couldn't help it; I started laughing. It just struck me as funny that big badass Bradley Crawford was standing there yelling at him and the only thing that seemed of any importance to Farf was how many shades of red the American can throw off at once.

Both turned to stare at me, Crawdad in annoyance and Farf in... curiosity?

//...a little white, where'd _that_ come from? ...some indigo as usual... i've never seen that shade of red before, though, it's very... soft...?//

I ceased laughing abruptly, smirking at our fearless leader and innocently purring, "It's always amusing to watch you blow up, Braddy, your face turns the loveliest shade of magenta." I can't help but bait him, he knows I prefer male companionship to female but I wouldn't fuck him if he were the last man on the face of the earth!

However, my own curiosity was piqued now. Up until that point I'd _never_ heard Farfie mention my "colors", so to hear that so clearly was surprising. And I have to admit to wondering what the hell he meant by a soft red around me. It seemed time to raid the Irishman's bookshelf again to locate that journal he left open on the coffee table two months back when he though he was here alone....

Oracle looked even more annoyed for a moment, then snapped back into what I referred to as leader mode. "We leave at seven sharp, everyone had better be ready to go. Wear the white uniforms." Without another word he turned and stalked out of the room, probably to read his newspaper in peace and quiet. Prodigy stood and followed an instant later, leaving Farf and me alone.

One golden eye focused on me a moment more, his thoughts unreadable to me as they generally were when he seemed to be deciding upon something. After a moment he nodded silently and walked out as well, although his thoughts were now crystal clear to me as he moved:

//I know I saw a flicker of orange for a moment... what does that mean?//

Wondering the same thing myself, I finished my morning cup of coffee and sauntered out to the living room. After I tormented Crawfish for a while I'd go "borrow" Farf's journal and make myself at home in front of the chibi's computer.

I just had to know what he saw when he looked at me.

~+ Owari Chapter One +~ 

Final notes: Yes, my koi and are on the same wavelength on a point once again—and that is that the inability to feel pain is sort of a lame "psychic" power! So (also sharing a view) Farfie can see people's auras (and the interlude will go a bit further to explain a teeny bit). My information on aura colors and meanings comes from three websites: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1366/auras.htm, http://www.visionsofheaven.com/articlesNoFrames/ARNFauras.html, and http://realmagick.com/topics/54/54.html. The one that helped me most is the second, as it goes much more in depth than the other two, but all are excellent sources =^_^=

Also, the journal mentioned by Schuldich in this chapter will be discussed a teeny bit more in the first interlude.


	3. Interlude One

Title: Witness  
Author: Ryoko 03  
Fandom: Weiß Kreuz  
Warnings: AU – Angst – Implied Shounen-ai – Oracle/Prodigy Bastardization – Death  
Rating: R for language and implied violence

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the fic; hell, if I was the creator I can promise that the new designs (http://www.marine-e.co.jp/weib/weib-anime02.htm) would NOT exist!! God, I can only imagine wtf they could do to the Schwarz boys should they pop up in the new season....

Author's Note: Farfarello's POV, in present tense for this part only.

//thoughts//

{telepathic speech}

Summary: Sometimes realization comes a little too late....

  
~+ Witness +~

__

I won't weigh you down  
With good intention  
– Sarah McLachlan, "Witness"

Interlude

I walk to my room and close the door behind me, waiting until I'm alone to drop my defensive mask. I lean back against the steel-reinforced wood for a moment, musing that it's more adept at keeping distracting sounds out than at keeping me in. That alone is the only reason I willingly retreat here when the Oracle is in one of his dark-deep-I-want-to-kill-something-red moods. His reds and Prodigy's cloudy black are enough to depress me on one of my "up" days, so I try to avoid them as much as I can.

So of course Takatori'd plan a party tonight. Typical, and I get to see more fun shades of passion and anger and lust... so long as none is directed towards _me_, the night could be interesting.

What's distracting me right now, though, is that rosy shade I saw mixed in with Schuldich's usual indigo-violet colors.

On my "good days," my teammates are easy to read: Oracle throws off various deep reds that I learned from experience were anger shades—I tend to piss him off daily because it's fun—with a deep indigo mingled in to show "readers" that the man has psychic abilities. Prodigy runs a lot of indigo and black—sometimes cloudy, sometimes muddied—which seem to display a sort of depression and detachment from the world. Schuldich's colors change from day to day, although I can usually find traces of jealous green in the mix.

Today, though, he's throwing off a bit of white along with that rose color, and I know damned well there was a flicker of orange for a minute.

I push off the door and move to the center of my room, dropping onto the end of my bed and staring at the ceiling as I drift from the world for a moment. It's far easier for me to understand a new color if I can step back from life and focus internally. I suppose that's why I seem "blank" from time to time; I'm literally not all there.

I've seen that soft rose before... where...? Oh, yes, when I saw that wedding a month ago when Oracle deemed me "normal" enough to be out... some form of affection then? Ah, that's the color of being in love, I understand that now.

And white... white is pure, it means honesty, yet the German is the most accomplished liar I've ever met. I can't begin to comprehend how it could exist in the man even if I consider him my only true friend.

As for orange, that particular shade I glimpsed is one of affection. I would assume that it goes hand-in-hand with the rosy colors. I still don't understand though.

Who is Schuldich in love with? 

I shake my head, coming back into myself just in time to see a flash of indigo-rose-white vanish out the door. I can't imagine what my teammate was looking for in my room, but I'll worry about that later. For now, I'll focus on preparing mentally for tonight.

And afterwards I can confront my friend and find out his secret.

~+ Owari Interlude +~


End file.
